Understanding the Communicative and Social Processes of Engineering Ethics in Diverse Design Teams

在工程设计团队中，工程教育工作者不仅关注学生个人如何在道德上发展，而且还关注道德决策如何在团队互动中出现，并融入设计解决方案。这些道德决策通常不会表现为传统的困境，而是在日常设计过程中面临的问题，并受到成员的文化和学科背景以及团队和组织的道德气候的影响。 该项目旨在了解日常道德决策是如何整合到不同的工程设计团队的流程和互动中的，以及他们对他们所产生的解决方案的长期设计后果的认识。本研究将社会网络分析与结构化理论相结合，研究项目团队的结构，同时也研究了有助于团队气氛的制度和背景因素，以及影响团队互动的群体规范的发展。智力优势：这项研究建立在以前的NSF资助的工作和广泛的文献，从工程教育和社会科学，以解决不同的设计团队中的道德意识和道德推理的引人注目的问题。 设计是工程的核心功能，伦理学通常在本科设计课程中学习，其中许多伦理决策是通过更小更频繁的设计决策做出的，并涉及与团队成员的互动。 这个项目研究了日常道德决策是如何系统地整合在设计过程中和不同设计团队的互动。高素质的研究团队将以雄心勃勃但现实的研究策略，明确的目标和目的以及强大的多学科评估和传播计划来指导这项研究。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果对整个工程教育以及社会都有潜在的影响。 今天的技术为工程界提供了一个巨大的机会，如果应用得当，可以对社会产生积极影响。 当今的全球化社会增加了社会和道德问题的复杂性，这些问题需要由设计师和专业人士解决，因为技术被应用于满足需求。更好地了解不同设计团队在做出设计决策时道德推理的发展，可以大大提高工程师和其他技术专业人员学习ABET、NAE 2020年工程师和行业利益相关者所要求的关键属性的方式。这项研究的结果可以用来通知课程，评估和教学策略，使教育工作者引导学生的道德发展工程。 该项目还引入了跨学科的研究方法，从通信到工程教育。

Within engineering design teams, engineering educators are concerned not only with how individual students develop ethically, but also how ethical decision-making emerges during team interactions and becomes integrated in design solutions. These ethical decisions often do not present themselves as traditional dilemmas, but are issues that are confronted in the everyday process of design, and are influenced by the cultural and disciplinary backgrounds of the members and the ethical climates of the team and the organization. This project seeks to understand how everyday ethical decision-making is integrated in the processes and interactions of diverse engineering design team and their recognition of the long-term design consequences of the solutions they produce. This study combines social network analysis with structuration theory to examine the structure of project teams while also examining the institutional and contextual factors that contribute to team climate, and to the development of group norms that affect team interactions. Intellectual Merit: This study builds on prior NSF funded work and a broad literature from engineering education and the social sciences to address the compelling issue of ethical awareness and ethical reasoning within diverse design teams. Design is a central function of engineering and ethics is often learned within undergraduate design courses where many ethical decisions are made through smaller more frequent design decisions and involve interactions with team members. This project examines how everyday ethical decision-making is integrated systematically in the design processes and interactions of diverse design teams. The well-qualified research team will guide the study with an ambitious yet realistic research strategies, clear goals and objectives, and strong, multi-disciplinary evaluation and dissemination plans. Broader Impacts: The findings of this research have potential impacts across engineering education, as well as society. Today's technology provides the engineering community with an enormous opportunity to positively impact society if applied appropriately. Today's global society adds complexity to the social and ethical issues that need to be addressed by designers and professionals as technology is applied to address needs. Better understanding the development of ethical reasoning within diverse design teams as they make design decisions can greatly enhance the way engineers and other technical professionals learn key attributes called for by ABET, the NAE's Engineer of 2020, and industry stakeholders. The findings of this study can be used to inform curriculum, assessment, and pedagogical strategies that enable educators to guide students' ethical development across engineering. The project also introduces cross-disciplinary research methods from communication into engineering education.